One of the biggest problems with mass-market advertising is that
it vies for the attention of prospects by interrupting them.
That's why TV commercials have been called "dream
interrupters"-the TV show is your dream; the commercials
interrupt that dream. That's not so good.

On the other hand, if nobody else is interrupting the audience,
the interruption is effective for you. Unfortunately, that never
happens-and there are so many interruptions these days that people
have learned to ignore them. Television is cluttered with
commercial messages, and the Web is even worse. That's why
guerrillas are rapidly warming up to "permission
marketing" on the Internet.

Why does permission marketing work? These days, people have the
money to spend on products or services, but they don't have
time to evaluate your offerings and learn why you're
trustworthy. That's one reason online marketing is so powerful.
You can use e-mail to communicate with people frequently, quickly
and unobtrusively-if they've given you permission.

The name of this new game is to get people to point to
themselves as hot prospects. With permission marketing, people
agree to learn more about your company and its benefits, usually by
registering their e-mail addresses on your company's or a
related organization's Web site.

Your challenge is to persuade consumers to volunteer their
attention. Tell them about your company and how your offerings can
benefit them. Then let them tell you a bit about themselves. Over
time, you create a mutually beneficial relationship. They want to
know what you have to say. Once they know more and trust you, they
can buy what you sell.

Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing (Simon &
Schuster) and owner of Yoyodyne, an e-mail and Internet marketing
company in Irvington, New York, says there are four rules of
permission marketing:

1. Permission must be granted. Buying names and
addresses and then sending direct mail to these prospects is not
permission. It's spamming, and guerrillas know spamming litters
the marketing scene and is usually ignored.

2. Permission is selfish. Your prospects will grant
you permission only if they clearly see there's something in it
for them. You've got about three seconds to tell them what that
something is.

3. Permission can be revoked. As easily as
permission is granted, it can be withdrawn. On the other hand, it
can also intensify over time. The intensity depends on the quality
of the interaction between you and your customers.

4. Permission can't be transferred. Think of
marketing as dating. You can't give a friend authority to go
out on a date in your place.

Once people give you permission to market to them, then what?
They want to get to know you better. They want you to solve their
problems. This is your chance to show and tell them how your
company can do that.

Interruption marketing is coming to a dead end, and the future
will belong to those companies that take advantage of permission
marketing. Will yours be one of them?